School Food Reform, One No-Bake Tart at a Time
JUN 24 2010, 1:30 PM ET | 
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Mackie Jimbo
To try the recipe for the raw fruit tart that Food Is Elementary educators use to teach kids about cooking and healthy eating, click here.
Catherine Dixon wheels a dilapidated, squeaky cart into a crowded classroom, where 25 eighth graders are waiting. "Today, we are making pasta primavera, a dish from Italy," she announces as she unloads boxes of pasta, fresh vegetables, and a mismatched assortment of kitchenware. As Dixon goes over the recipe, she asks the students to identify each vegetable that will be used. They instantly recognize tomatoes and bell peppers, but one vegetable—white asparagus—eludes them. "It looks like wood," one student remarks.
Dixon teaches a nutrition program called Food Is Elementary at Baltimore's Stadium School, a predominantly minority charter school. As food education has entered the national debate and gained the attention of powerful allies such as Michelle Obama, Dixon, too, has been disturbed by what she has seen: staggering obesity rates fueled by destructive, unhealthy diets.
Although Michelle Obama and her Let's Move Campaign call for major top-down food policy reform, Dixon takes a different approach. While reforming food policy is of course a long-term goal, Food Is Elementary has a more immediate priority: educating kids about healthy eating by
